


This Too Shall Pass

by w3djyt



Category: Bleach
Genre: AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-17
Updated: 2012-10-24
Packaged: 2017-11-16 12:40:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/539523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/w3djyt/pseuds/w3djyt
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A conversation between recent shinigami graduates years from now, when the wars have ended and lives lost.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Had a random muse expanding on the thought of Byakuya dying and the affect it would have on those around him, especially the manner in which it happened. It made me think of how hot headed Byakuya was when he was younger - of how much he’d changed over the years. And so I started wondering the incredibly painful thought of how drastically Renji might change after watching his captain die in front of him, slaughtered by his own technique. 
> 
> So here’s the result; a short banter between random academy students some years later, when what we’d find to be utterly strange is common knowledge. Might do more to cover other characters via gossip or general chit chat, but for now it’s Renji, kidou, the sixth division, and his tenacity over the years since.

The list was a broad: easily spanning several yards. If anyone had thought to ask, or listened to the grumblings of the academy instructors in the last few decades, it would be well known that the list had actually been a large board at one point, rather than the screen that now spanned twice the distance of the original bamboo and paper affair. They’d also mention that it had looked much better and that they had traditions for a reason, but no one ever listened. Most of the graduating class were newer souls, anyway, and the thought that it would be somehow strange to find some sort of modern technology in Soul Society never even crossed their minds. 

Still, the crowding of the announcement area was the same as it had always been; milling masses of humanity in splashes of white and red and blue. Black spotted the crowd but was generally overwhelmed by the pressing interest of the young and recently welcomed to the shared military of the after life. It was a large class - the last few decades were nothing but large classes. 

War in the living world always produced an overflow. 

War in Soul Society had left more than enough room.

A clamor arose from the front as people spotted names - their own, their friends, their most contentious rivals. 

“What squad? What squad?! Damnit, I can’t see anything!” A small woman pushed off the ground with a boost of reiatsu to land on the broad shoulders of her friend, who towered by at least a head over the next tallest graduate: a contemplative statue amidst the throng. 

“Sixth,” he lowly returned and raised a hand to point at the appropriate spot on the board where his friend’s name was lit in a white font against the black of the screen.

“All right!” she cheered, pumping a fist into the air excitedly as she kept her other hand steady on her friend’s collar. 

“‘All right’?” a third echoed with a bemused blink, shifting his gaze up to the excitable young woman and the stoic man still carefully considering the hundreds of names who so easily resisted the push of people about them alternately celebrating and denouncing their assignments. He arched an eyebrow and looked back to the wall. “I didn’t know your kidou scores were high enough for that division.”

“Hmph, don’t be such a prude, Shira. You’re just jealous.” She stuck out her tongue in retaliation. 

“… To be in the same division as you? Hardly,” he flatly returned.

“No way!” A cry of dismay as she turned back to confirm his statement. 

“So it would seem,” he sighed. 

“But I thought you put in for First-“

“ _Obviously_  they needed me elsewhere.”

She rolled her eyes and patted the head of the man serving as her chair instead. “Right. I’m sure the squad with the foremost kidou masters in all of Seireitei  _desperately_ needed your expertise. Ne Kenta, where’d you land?”

“… Nineth,” the larger man answered after a contemplative pause, nodding once and turning from the board to wade back through the mass of graduates, now that they’d finished. 

“With one of the visored captains-?”

“Shira!” 

“What?” the man demanded on a frown. “Was I incorrect?”

“… No,” the woman huffed with a deep pout, crossing her arms as she primly straightened in her sitting position. “But it was rude. I thought all you upperclass folk were supposed to have better manners than that.”

Shira merely rolled his eyes and decided to change topics. “What’s all this with Sixth, though?” he tried instead. “Did you request it?”

She blushed, looking away. “So what if I did?” 

He blinked slightly. “I’m just surprised. I didn’t know you were that interested in kidou.”

“… That’s not the  _only_  reason to request Sixth,” she muttered defensively, still avoiding his probing looks. 

“It’s not?” 

A heaved sigh and, just as the crowd began to thin, she spryly dismounted, landing beside the man set to become her fellow division mate. “Abarai-taichou grew up in Inuzuri,” she lowly related. “They kinda… skim over that in the overview. It’s always something about the years since the war. About the importance of being a ‘well rounded combatant’ or whatever… but you know they have basic biographies on the captains and vice captains for all the divisions out there… and… I don’t know. I thought it was cool, I guess, that he managed to get that far… That if I was going to follow someone’s orders for the rest of forever, I’d rather it was someone who understood that struggle.” 

“Kayo-“

“Don’t.” She didn’t stop, but turned her gaze askance to her friend as they followed Kenta through the crowd. “It’s been the best division for kidou development for decades. You should be happy.”

Shira merely pressed his lips into a line and said no more.


	2. Making Plans Is Easier Than Breaking Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> One of sixth's newest recruits from one of Seireitei's oldest families finds himself stuck in the middle of a relationship he doesn't understand between an adopted cousin and his own captain on a day no one in his division wants to bother either of them.

"You take it."

 

The third seat scrambled to catch the stack of papers before they could hit the ground, managing to do so at the cost of her dignity in landing there herself. "Me?" she squawked, brown eyes wide before she shook her head and stumbled to her feet, unsuccessfully attempting to shove the paperwork back to her vice captain. "No way! You saw where Taichou was headed-"

 

"Which is why _I'm not taking it_ ," the other woman flatly denied, a quick shunpo keeping her easily out of reach of retaliation and the redistribution of papers.

 

"Some fearless leader _you_ are-"

 

"It's called _delegation_ -"

 

"Can't we just wait until he get's _back_?" the third seat attempted again, expression openly uneasy. 

 

"It came over from 13th," the older woman definitively cut down with a sharp shake of her head. "You know how he is about anything from that division-"

 

"Couldn't they have just sent Kuchiki-fukutaichou, then?"

 

"Sent Kuchiki-fukutaichou where?" 

 

Two desperate, calculating gazes shifted immediately to the somewhat put out lower rank standing in their doorway. He just barely refrained from stepping back from the intensity of their combined stares.

 

"Of course-"

 

"Perfect!"

 

"I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier!" his vice captain declared before his doom was announced. "Shira-kun~ take these papers to Abarai-taichou for me~?" she brightly demanded, shoving the third seat forward until the younger woman uncertainly, but hastily shoved the paperwork into his hands.

 

"… Me?" he blankly echoed with a confused blink, nevertheless catching the documents with some sort of inherent grace. "… Why?" the far more suspicious follow up.

 

"You know, I bet Kuchiki-fukutaichou is already there, too! I bet you haven't seen her in a while, since she was mission for so long…"

 

Suspicion turned to flat disbelief. "And what makes you think I would be so inclined as to interrupt Abarai-taichou with _paperwork_ , of all things, when he could very well be with Kuchiki-fukutaichou?"

 

"Because I'm your commanding officer and I'm ordering you to~!" his vice captain cheerfully informed him.

 

It, apparently, got worse. 

 

Kuchiki Shiraku wasn't an idiot. Moreover, he had a _bit_ more access to information than the rest of his division by simple virtue of where he lived. Rukia had returned to the estate days ago. There had been a brief missive a day or so later, and though he didn't particularly make it his business to know the comings and goings of the entire clan, it had been fairly evident that she hadn't returned immediately to work. If she had today, and she was with Abarai-taichou, there was a _reason_. Something that became even more apparent when he was told precisely where to take said paperwork. 

 

It made him uneasy. 

 

And not for the reasons whispered behind closed doors and amongst the clan members who could still remember their previous head of household when they thought no one else was listening. He didn't care what the adopted sister of his family's last true leader did in her personal time - or who she was with. Or how long she'd apparently been with them. Or how proper any of it was. Nor did he believe, after actually meeting his own captain - no matter how briefly - and gaining some more time with his somewhat estranged cousin, that they were so flagrantly disregarding 'tradition' and 'respectable conduct' as was so oft implied. 

 

It merely made him stop at the edge of an eerily white forest at the top of the seemingly endless steps leading up the side of Soukyoku Hill. 

 

With a sigh and a brief glance to the world spun out below him, Shiraku made his decision. There was no mistaking the flaring energy now sneaking past the thick forest; one part burning hot and beating down, the other blisteringly cold and slicing directly through. Not a scenario anyone short of a vice captain should have been sent to so much as witness, and though he had his reservations concerning his vice captain, it only cemented the notion that no one really understood what was going on in this distant place no once wished to visit, on a day so few knew the importance of. 

 

But Shiraku was nothing if not stubborn. Perhaps it was in his blood. Perhaps it was merely something honed from the unmistakable pride instilled in him from birth. Either way, the press of spiritual pressure that made it to the edges of Soukyoku Hill, while nowhere near the full weight of a captain's fully released reiatsu, was more than enough to force the idling, unranked shinigami to his knees. He could probably get their attention. Could flare out his own reiatsu in defense and interrupt, but the very thought left a bitter taste in his mouth. Instead, he pushed himself into a proper seiza, settled a trembling hand against the paperwork in his lap, and drew a slow, calming breath. 

 

-

 

"… it's kind of _eerie_ …" 

 

"I _told you_ -" 

 

"Che- 's still fuckin' jarrin- Oi, up and at 'em-"

 

Shiraku's eyes snapped open with a jerk as a hand landed on his shoulder, a startled, shaky gasp escaping with the motion. "T-Taichou?"

 

Renji shook his head with a short chuckle, long red hair swaying in a haphazard sprawl from where he'd probably had to retie it back after a match that had otherwise taken clumps of his haori and other affects. A smear of blood stood out against the obviously healed flesh of his chest and as Shiraku swept his gaze upward it became apparent that such a pattern continued over the whole of his captain's form. The older man looked anything but upset about this, however. Well, that wasn't entirely true. His demeanor seemed at once somewhat forced and equally simply exhausted; content from a lack of remaining choices.

 

"… should take him to fourth-"

 

Shiraku blinked, only just realizing they must have continued talking during his contemplation. "No." He cleared his throat somewhat self-consciously, forcing weary limbs to catch the papers in his lap as he pushed himself shakily to his feet in order to deliver a proper bow. "I apologize, I was sent some time ago-"

 

"I _told you_ you should have told them not to bother you," Rukia began on a huff, crossing her arms and turning a pointed look to her companion.

 

"They shoulda _known_ by now," Renji grumbled on a sigh, raising a hand to scrub over his face in vague irritation. 

 

The younger noble silently straightened as the two continued to debate what the seated officers of sixth did and obviously did not know, taking the offered time to settle his nerves and work out their jumbled state. Rukia, it seemed, even now, was markedly livelier than he could ever remember her being on family ground. She seemed winded, sure, but  still held every bit of regal composure that dominated her actions at home - and yet offered the captain a wan smile with every word. The white hand and arm guards always accompanying her uniform were torn and dirty, and the headpiece that pushed strands of hair to hang over her face partially askew, casting a shadow over widely expressive eyes he was so used to catching only glimpses of amusement or frustration in, hooded as they tended to remain amongst family. 

 

No. It wasn't that, Shiraku realized after another moment's contemplation amidst the quickly escalating argument between his two superiors. 

 

"Abarai-taichou."

 

The man stopped immediately, turning his attention back to Shiraku as if just remembering he was still there. 

 

"I was sent due to the… promptness you give items from thirteenth," he calmly continued, dark eyes lidding lest he openly shift them to Rukia with the statement. "Since you were busy when I arrived-"

 

"Ya' did fine, kid," Renji interrupted, looking somehow both supremely amused and quite… Shiraku wasn't sure what to name the expression, but it certainly looked uncomfortable. "So let's have 'em - whatever was so important," his captain prompted with an extended hand and a quirked eyebrow. 

 

Shiraku wordlessly passed the paperwork over, quickly stepping aside to let his superior past, muttering something odd about clones, if he wasn't terribly mistaken. Rukia's sigh turned him somewhat awkwardly back to her instead. "Did I-?"

 

"No," she answered with a tired smile and a shake of her head. "It's nothing you did."

 

He shifted uneasily. "… I should head back," Shiraku rather stiffly offered and immediately made to suit his words.

 

"Dinner will be soon; we should both go home," Rukia corrected, stepping quickly after to match his pace with a surprisingly warm smile aimed in his direction. 

 

"I've been gone too long already - "

 

"He already dismissed you for the day," she cut in with a shake of her head. "Don't worry about it."

 

This explanation, of course, only furrowed Shiraku's brow as he openly attempted to sort out why that would have been and how he was supposed to know as much. "… When… did he?"

 

Rukia chuckled into her hand. "When he didn't give you something else to do," she more lightly elaborated. 

 

When he only looked more confused, the chuckle became brighter and louder, slipping out past her hands with such honest amusement that the younger noble felt himself smile involuntarily. "I suppose… I have quite a lot to learn," he softly acknowledged. 

 

"Renji's - ah - Abarai-taichou's a bit… different than you're used to," Rukia explained with a wry expression as she settled her laughter for the moment and continued their stroll down the lengthy steps.

 

"… Ah." Shiraku looked out, then, appreciating the easy pace as a way to soothe his body back to normal function after having spent so long waiting at the edge of reiatsu so powerful he'd nearly passed out from the strain. The sky had darkened considerably since his climb up, resting now in the slow makings of twilight; the horizon far out before him one of deep oranges fading to dark purple hues above them. "… Does he… always do that?"

 

Rukia looked back over to him with a blink, the color of her eyes now harder to make out in the tinted darkness creeping over them. "Do what? Not really dismiss you?" She shrugged lightly. "Not all the time, it's just-"

 

"No I-" Shiraku stopped; the action so sudden that his companion instinctively moved as if to catch him. He shook his head lightly, looking down instead. "Nevermind. It's… really not my place."

 

The two fell into a stretch of silence - the younger uncomfortably uncertain once more and the elder wavering for a long moment of indecision before she spoke again. "… Sometimes," she finally settled on, stepping away somewhat formally to allow the young noble the distance she knew would be easier for him to operate within, and turned her gaze back to the sprawl of civilization below them. "Some days… it's just a little harder…"

 

"I shouldn't have brought it up," Shiraku cut in, looking up again and catching his breath against the strikingly lonesome silhouette the noblewoman struck in the light of the fading sun. For a moment, he could catch that same tired sadness from before lingering in the downcast gaze, this time without a contending expression attempting to smother it. She seemed like a statue then; regal in bearing as she stood watch for something no other could see. "I know today, in particular - I should have told them to just hold the paper-"

 

"Do you?" Rukia interrupted again, a gentle smile working it's way back into her expression as she looked back to the young man she'd watch grow over the long years she'd struggled to maintain everything that had been given to her. 

 

Shiraku frowned slightly, resisting the urge to fidget under such a gaze and instead consciously rolled his shoulders back in an attempt to match his cousin's regal bearing. "You always… the estate is very quiet," he eventually settled on, not wanting to step over any lines, but still attempting to answer. 

 

She watched him a moment longer, a distinctly analyzing gaze all the more difficult for him to meet, but held nevertheless. Then she was turning forward again, and continuing on with a broad stretch of her arms. "I've changed my mind; I don't feel like going home tonight."

 

A half strangled noise of confusion escaped before Shiraku to hold it back, a hand moving hurriedly to hold his sword in place as he hastily matched the new pace of their descent. "You're not?" the blank inquiry. "But it's-"

 

"So what? I don't feel like it," her blunt insistence, pace quickening again to a light jog. "I'm going out instead!"

 

Shiraku caught himself just shy of stumbling, forcing himself to keep pace in spite of the awkward tug on his own tired muscles. "You can't, though!" he blurted in open confusion.

 

"Are you trying to tell me, a member of the head house, what I can and cannot do?"

 

The surprisingly haughty retort caught Shiraku off guard. "Of - of course not, Rukia-sama-"

 

"Good!" she cut in with a wicked smile and paused long enough to grab him by the wrist. "Because you're coming with me."

 

Staring. He was definitely staring now, mouth agape as he vied to stay on his own two feet, despite being dragged swiftly down the steep staircase at an increasingly fast rate. "I- I am? I mean, I … I'm flattered, b-but I really couldn't-"

 

"Nope!"

 

"No??"

 

"All of your opinions are rejected!"

 

He took it back. She really was just as crazy as whispers said. "You… You can't just…" 

 

"Watch me."


End file.
